Going Viral
by Silver-White Wings
Summary: Tamaki and the Host Club didn't know much about the death of Haruhi's mother. That was all because she never knew much about it herself. But when she finally finds the truth, is she better off? Of course, Tamaki has to have a say in the matter, too...
1. The Depression of Discovery

**Going Viral**

_**Chapter One –The Depression of Discovery**_

'Twas a very nice afternoon at Ouran Academy. Just kidding, there were grey clouds above, and it looked close to raining. But anyway, the twins were singing, and (in his own opinion) the Host Club King Tamaki was shining.

This is purely metaphoric, might I add.

"Hey, Kyoya! Why don't we do a Death Note cosplay? Haruhi would make an adorable little Misa-Misa!" the supposedly shining Tamaki suggested enthusiastically, his eyes alight with childish joy.

"Realistically, _you_ would make a better Misa and she Light Yagami, albeit without the murderous tendencies. And what would the rest of us be? There are hardly enough relevant characters, really," Kyoya reasoned.

"Alright then how about… Black Cat? You could be the creepy doctor dude, Haruhi can be that Saya person, and Honey-Senpai can be Train as a kid!"

"No. Absolutely not."

"But why not?"

"Just because we have the same voice actors doesn't mean that we should cosplay as them." Kyoya scolded, rolling his eyes.

"Fine then! How about Final Fantasy? We haven't done that yet and there are plenty of characters to choose from!" Tamaki hit his palm with his fist, looking triumphant. "Yes! That's perfect!"

"Alright then, I really can't see any reason not to, so we can do Final Fantasy cosplay sometime next week." Kyoya sighed, looking through that week's profits and expenses. "But we'll have to tone down the other cosplay that week, since Final Fantasy cosplay isn't the cheapest there is."

And so went the conversation.

Meanwhile, over on the other side of the room, Honey sat eating cake while Mori accompanied him. Okay, moving on. Near to where they were, the twins were dancing around in the Pirate cosplay they had worn, and thoroughly enjoyed that day. The incestuous pirate twins had been a big hit, somehow, despite the fact that they were talking in pirate slang most of the time.

And then there was Haruhi, who was sitting on the windowsill, staring out at nothing in particular, which was odd for Haruhi, who would generally be studying during the time in-between Hosting sessions. Tamaki was of course, the first to notice Haruhi's difference in habit, and the only one to overreact about it.

"Hey Kyoya… I'm worried about Haruhi; she's been all sad today. She didn't participate much in club activities today, and-"

"If you want to know what's wrong, why don't you go and ask her yourself?" Kyoya said irritably.

"I-I don't want to upset her!"

Kyoya (wisely) chose to ignore him.

Instead, Tamaki went to the twins for consolation.

"Kaoru, Hikaru, you're in Haruhi's class. Why is she acting all…" he glanced over at her. "…all depressed-like!"

They shrugged. "We don't know," said Hikaru.

"She's been like that all day," said Kaoru.

"And _why did you not tell me_!" Tamaki hissed.

The twins resumed their dance, saying in unison, "Didn't think it was relevant."

"Yeah, maybe she-"

"-Caught some kind of cold or flu-"

"-Or a terminal illness-"

"-Or a deadly virus-"

"OKAY! OKAY! ENOUGH!" Tamaki cried, throwing his hands over his ears. The room went quiet and everyone turned to stare at him. At that very instant, it started to rain. Haruhi slid down from the windowsill and mumbled something about leaving her books somewhere. Tamaki's eyes followed her all the way to the door.

"Well, if you want to find out what's wrong," said a voice in Tamaki's ear.

"Then now's your chance!" said a similar voice in the other ear.

"Kaoru, Hikaru," Tamaki said. "Will you _kindly_ stop pretending to be my conscience?"

Nevertheless, Tamaki followed Haruhi through the large double doors. When he didn't see her anywhere nearby, he tried to think of some of the most likely places she would go. Her class, 1-A? No, the chess club used that class to practice, and Haruhi was no good at chess. So maybe… the first-year library? It was huge, and the book club only used a small part of it for their meetings.

And so he set off for the library at a run. He reached it just in time to see a small foot, clad in a shiny black Ouran shoe, disappear through the door. He quickly slipped in after the mysterious foot, and looked around to see the same foot disappear behind a bookshelf. He followed it again. But as he emerged around the corner he had seen the foot disappearing around last, he saw Haruhi sitting on the floor, bent over a book, her back to him. He looked at her foot. Yep, it was the same foot he had seen. Wait, it wasn't the foot he was after, it was _Haruhi_, so why did it matter to him whether it was the same foot or not! Why did it even matter to write this? Moving on…!

"Haruhi…" he said quietly. Haruhi jumped and whipped around, slamming the book shut and attempting to shove it under the bookcase.

"Senpai! What are you doing here?" she gasped, flustered.

"I could ask you the same question! What's wrong with you today?" Tamaki questioned, taking a step towards her.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Haruhi insisted defiantly.

"Haruhi!" Tamaki repeated, kneeling down in front of her, staring into her eyes as if trying to read her mind to find out what was wrong. "You can tell me if something's bugging you. Is it those shady twins giving you a hard time?"

Haruhi sighed. "It's not the twins. It's nothing that concerns you, okay? I just… don't feel well, I guess. I think I might go home. Tell Kyoya for me, if you want to help." She got up to walk away, and as she did, Tamaki caught a glimpse of the title of the book Haruhi had tried to shove under the bookcase; _Viral Weaponry in the 20__th __C. _The rest of the title was cut off, but Tamaki could guess what it said. He leapt up and grabbed Haruhi's wrist as she tried to run away.

"Let go of me, Senpai," she said calmly, but firmly.

Tamaki tried to ignore the assertion in her voice, and he shook his head defiantly. "Not until you tell me what's going on! Haruhi, why are you looking up viral weaponry?"

Haruhi's tensed arm went limp under Tamaki's fingers as she resumed the dejected posture she had been assuming that whole day. She didn't say anything.

"Haruhi…" Tamaki said once again. She turned to face him; a single tear track glistened on her cheek. Tamaki's eyes widened as she spoke in a cracked voice.

"Because… my mother…"

Tamaki didn't say anything else as he pulled Haruhi into a comforting hug. "I understand," he said softly.

"No…" Haruhi said into Tamaki's chest. "This is different. I found out… she was…" she whispered the last word, "murdered."

Tamaki froze, but then pulled away from Haruhi to hold her at arm's length. "I thought she died of a sickness?"

"She did," Haruhi confirmed blankly, looking at the book sticking out from under the shelf.

Tamaki understood; she had been killed by a viral weapon. He let his hands fall from Haruhi's shoulders, and sank to the floor. "How," he said simply, "how do you know?"

Haruhi sat down next to him. "We were given an assignment to research a relevant murder trial. Mum was a lawyer, as you know, and I knew she'd been involved in a few murder cases before. Dad doesn't usually let me look at her old case files, but he's hardly at home, so it wasn't hard to find the box.

"It was her last case. Her client was the family of the first victim of a new viral weapon created by a diagnosis specialist. They were trying to sue the hospital for letting it happen. To begin with, the patient had been diagnosed with an unknown form of brain cancer. According to witnesses from the hospital, the diagnosis specialist had taken samples of the tumor, and mutated the disease with pneumonia."

"That's-!" started Tamaki.

"Horrible, I know," said Haruhi, before she continued. "The new virus was given to the patient as a supposed medicine, but the next day, the patient died. I'm guessing this was just a test for the diagnosis specialist, but as he was tracked down, the two witnesses both died a fortnight after giving testimony. They brought in the diagnosis specialist, and after a few court sessions, during which the doctor pleaded not guilty, mum proved that he _was_ guilty. She got paid a lot for that case, as a prosecution lawyer."

"So what happened to the doctor?" Tamaki inquired meekly.

"He got the death penalty, according to mum's old files. The thing is, after the sentence was made, and a background check was performed, they discovered that the doctor's fiancée was actually a sadistic mass murder who developed different ways of killing. Obviously, that's why the viral weapon had been produced. It wasn't very contagious, but it was still a slow, painful, and virtually undetectable method of murder. Victims continued to die of the virus even after the creator's prosecution."

Tamaki's eyes widened. "You mean…"

"Yeah. My own mother… was the first victim after the trials ended. She died sixteen days after the case was concluded."

"Haruhi…" Tamaki whispered, his voice thick with emotion as he turned to look at her. She was staring straight ahead, blinking furiously at the tears that rolled freely down her cheeks.

Tamaki felt his own eyes well up as he gently pulled her close again, and she sobbed into his chest.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** It's short. I know. I'm not incredibly proud of that, but what can I do? I knew where I wanted to end the chapter, and ran out of things to say.

Not to mention the fact that I still need to settle into the characters, setting, and plot. After that, the chapters are guaranteed to grow in length. Considerably.

But the sci-fi kinda stuff is right up my alley, I could write about it for hours, seriously, so you KNOW the chapters will get longer once we get into the thick of it.

Believe it or not, the original idea that I had is in this whole chapter. Yep. The whole thing. Pretty cool, huh? But don't worry, after writing this I've gotten loads more ideas. :3

Please review to let me know anything I need to work on, or any good points, or any absolutely terrible points. Even if it's ridiculously terrible, review to tell me that, before I cause any more damage!

Arigatou Gozaimasu!

- Silver


	2. Trickery in All the Right Places

**Going Viral**

_**Chapter Two – Trickery in All the Right Places**_

"Hikaru, Kaoru," said Kyoya, as the door swung shut behind Tamaki. "What _do_ you know about this?"

The devil twins put identical sad faces on. "Don't you trust what we said earlier, Kyoya-Senpai?" said Hikaru.

"We really don't know much!" continued Kaoru.

"And that's exactly the point," drawled Kyoya, "you don't know _much_ which means you do know _something_."

The Hitachiins looked at each other, and shrugged. "It all started yesterday afternoon, when we were given a rather difficult assignment," they said.

"The criteria of the assignment-"

"-Is to research a relevant-"

"-Murder trial from-"

"-The last two decades."

They paused.

"And then?" said Kyoya, in a bored voice.

"Well, Haruhi turns to us and says-"

"-'I wonder if I'll be able to find any cases-'"

"'-in Okaa-san's old files?'"

"Then this morning, we ask-"

"-'Did you find any good cases?'-"

"-And she starts looking all depressed!"

"Hmm, that's interesting. This says that Haruhi indeed found a relevant case in her mother's old case files," Kyoya speculated, "perhaps one too relevant for her liking?"

"Poor Haru-Chan's had a really bad day," Honey contributed, walking over to them 'leading' Usa-Chan by the paw. "She looked like she wasabout to cry when we saw her in the Library this morning! Right Takashi?"

Mori nodded his confirmation. "Yeah, she did."

"It _is_ kinda worrying," admitted Hikaru.

"Yeah, I've never seen her look so depressed," added Kaoru

"Then I think it's safe to assume that this is the one she was looking at," said Kyoya, opening his laptop and turning the screen to show the others a file. "Kotoko Fujioka's last case. It started out as a family suing a hospital for allowing the death of their beloved father, however," he adjusted his glasses on his nose, "it turned into a matter of viral weaponry."

"Viral-"

"-Weaponry?" gasped the twins, leaning forward to read off the screen. Honey squeezed between them, and Mori looked over their heads.

"It's quite tragic, I assume that Haruhi's mother was one of the lawyers killed after the trials ended," said Kyoya as they finished reading.

"But Kyo-Chan, how did you find this?" asked Honey.

"The online Ootori database, of course."

"Of course…" echoed the twins, looking at each other and rolling their eyes.

Late that night, Tamaki sat in front of the computer in his private library-study in mansion number two, looking through file after file of Viral Weaponry, which he had found on the Ootori database.

It was horrible what kind of things they had come up with: Diseases which caused fingers and toes to fall off, illnesses which dried the blood tissue, and viruses which caused the skin to go green and slimy, eventually suffocating the victim. And of course, most of these were made from existing common sicknesses, mutated together in a laboratory to combine the worst symptoms of both.

The list got worse as it went on, and Tamaki's hands were shaking with disgust as he clicked through the many files.

And finally, after what seemed like hours (but was really only a few minutes) of torture, he found it. The document headed with _A Mutation of Idiopathic Interstitial Pneumonia and an Unidentified Form of Brain Cancer._ It was almost exactly what Haruhi had described. Tamaki quickly closed all other documents and windows, and scanned through the file.

_First Victim: Patient for a yet unknown type of brain cancer. Samples from the tumor were mutated in a private hospital laboratory by diagnosis specialist Akara Kitsukke, 23. After witness' testimony, charges the family was holding against the hospital were dropped after being paid a sympathy fund, and the court proceedings became a murder trial. Kitsukke pleaded not guilty, but after the deaths of the two witnesses (who were doctors who worked in the same hospital alongside Kitsukke), he was proven guilty, and given the death penalty. _

Tamaki leaned forward in his chair. This was definitely it. What he was reading was basically the same as what he had already been told that afternoon

_A background check on Kitsukke revealed that he was secretly engaged to the notorious female murderer Kuroko Shirochi, 21. It was concluded that Kitsukke had created the virus as a weapon for Shirochi, though by the time this connection was made, Shirochi had cut all ties to Kitsukke and fled, eluding capture yet again._

_Prior to the case's conclusion, several lawyers involved in the case died from an unknown sickness, believed to be Kitsukke's created weapon. The search for Shirochi continued. _

Tamaki clenched his fist over the mouse. The details following this initial description were victim details; times of death, estimated time of conceiving the virus, and so on. He skimmed through it all, looking for more information about Kuroko Shirochi. There was no further mention of her , which led him to believe that she had not been captured at all. The file was from ten years ago, so the ages were outdated, but at the very bottom were various updates from the past ten years. Looking closer, Tamaki's eye was caught by the latest update from less than a month ago; _Shirochi sighted by hikers at the foot of Mt. Rausu, Shiretoko Peninsula, Hokkaido._

"Hokkaido…" Tamaki murmured to himself. "Shiretoko…"

Having been there himself, he knew that Mt. Rausu was almost in the dead centre of Shiretoko National Park, next to the Shiretoko pass which connected the towns Utoro and Rausu (on either side of Mt. Rausu). The Suoh corporation had shares in the Shiretoko Noble Hotel in Utoro, so if he wanted to, then he could…

A few minutes later, he switched off the computer, and got up, yawning.

_Winter break is in a week,_ he thought to himself. _Haruhi is in a state of shock from having found out the real details of her mother's death. I can only imagine how she must feel. If my mother… _he stopped the thought halfway, and hung his head. _It is the job of a host to bring happiness to princesses. My little Haruhi is no exception to this rule, even if she's a host herself!_

A few days later, during class 2-A's homeroom, Tamaki went over the things he still needed to do in preparation for his trip to Hokkaido. He needed to get a plane ticket from Narita airport to Memanbetsu airport, confirm his choice of room in the hotel, and arrange a form of transportation from the airport to Utoro.

"Say, Tamaki," said Kyoya, "are you going to Hokkaido for the Winter break?"

Tamaki froze, and slowly turned to face his friend. "How did you know?" he asked suspiciously.

Kyoya nodded towards Tamaki's notebook, which he had been absentmindedly doodling on. The word 'HOKKAIDO' was drawn in fancy lettering across the page, sub-headed by 'for Haruhi'.

"Oh… right," Tamaki said, staring down at the decorated page rather sheepishly.

"And I'm guessing you're going to find out more about Kuroko Shirochi?" Kyoya continued absently.

"Okay, how the hell do you know this?"

"The twins told me about their project, and I worked it out for myself using the Ootori database. The rest of the club knows now, too."

"And _why_ did you tell them?" Tamaki said through gritted teeth. "Isn't it a bit of an invasion of Haruhi's personal problem?"

Kyoya smirked. "Well, they were all worried about her. And by taking matters into your own hands, aren't you _yourself_ invading?"

Tamaki slumped forwards in his chair, burying his head in his arms. "Fine, you can come!" he said, his voice slightly muffled.

"You may _need_ the Ootori police force, after all," chuckled Kyoya.

Later in the day, while on his way to the cafeteria for lunch, Tamaki heard a familiar voice cry out "Tama-Chan! Tama-Chan!"

Tamaki turned around to see Honey running towards him, with Mori close behind.

"Honey-Senpai, Mori-Senpai! What's up?" Tamaki asked in a friendly tone.

Honey smiled. "Not much, but Kyo-Chan told us that you're going to Hokkaido to help Haru-Chan avenge her Okaa-chan! Can Takashi and I come, too?"

Tamaki sighed. By now, Kyoya had probably told the whole host club, excepting perhaps Haruhi. "I don't know…"

"Please? We want to help! Takashi's family owns a house in the Shiretoko forest!" Honey begged, looking up at Tamaki with wide eyes.

Tamaki sighed once again. "Oh, fine. And if you see the twins tell them that they're allowed to come too, but don't let Haruhi know, okay? Tell them when she isn't near them."

"Yes, sir!" Honey giggled happily, before running off again. Mori nodded at Tamaki as he followed after. So far, the day had been somewhat tiring for Tamaki.

Haruhi felt exactly the same way. She was sick of the twins glancing at each other with identical worried expressions when they thought she wasn't looking, and even though they didn't ask any questions, she could tell they wanted to. Other people had asked questions, though. Repetitively, she heard 'Are you okay?', 'What's wrong, Haruhi-kun?' and 'Do you need to go to the nurse, Fujioka-kun?' And each time, Haruhi had answered with 'Yes, thank you', 'Nothing, I'm fine', and 'No, I'm just a little tired'.

At long last, the final bell rang, and Haruhi gladly packed away her books and notes.

"Haruhi," said Hikaru, "are you coming to club activities today?"

Haruhi shrugged. "Maybe. I need to go to the library first, though."

"Alright. Don't worry about coming if you don't feel up to it, though. We'll explain it to the boss," said Kaoru, patting Haruhi playfully on the head.

"Thanks guys," said Haruhi. "I'll see you later, then."

So Haruhi rushed off to the library. She wanted to get there quickly so that she could claim the use of a school computer; there was some research she needed to do. When she logged on to a computer at the back of the library using her student ID number and password, she opened up the web search, and typed in 'viral weaponry'.

_**Viral Weaponry **s__howing results 1-10 of 517,381_

_What is a __**Viral Weapon**__? – Q&A_

_**Viral Weaponry**__ of the Past Decade – Ootori Database_

Finding it all too predictable that Kyoya's family would be connected to it in some way, she clicked the second link, and scrolled through file after file of horrible viral weapons until she found what she was looking for. It was a more updated version of the rough files she had found within her mother's old cases, minus the lawsuit status papers. She scrolled to the bottom of the page to look at the latest updates, if there were any.

_UPDATE (xxxx年11月17日 ): Shirochi sighted by hikers at the foot of Mt. Rausu, Shiretoko Peninsula, Hokkaido._

Haruhi sat there for a moment, thinking over her limited options. As a budding lawyer, and the daughter of the victim, she wanted Shirochi to be prosecuted, but as a relatively poor commoner with no means of self-defence, the chances of her going to Hokkaido on her own to catch a notorious mass-murderer were poor. Very poor.

Why did she need to go, anyway? There were sure to be special police forces looking for Shirochi. There were bound to be. With this thought in mind, Haruhi attempted to reassure herself. But there was something dissatisfying about it, and she knew why; she truly wanted revenge, and she wanted to dish it out herself.

And so, with only one reasonable option left, she logged off and left the library, taking off in the direction of Music Room Three.

As she trudged down the north hallway at the top of the south building, she could hear Tamaki's loud voice dictating something to the rest of the host club, and as she drew closer, his words became clearer.

"-Winter trip to Hokkaido!" he was saying. Haruhi narrowed her eyes, and paused in front of the doors to press her ear to the dainty keyhole.

"-meet at Narita airport at midday on Sunday, fly to the Memanbetsu airport, and take the Hitachiin's car to the Shiretoko Noble Hotel in Utoro. That shouldn't be hard, since it's straight up the highway, but when we get to the hotel, we'll rest up and prepare for the next day."

"And then we'll be hiking to Takashi's family's forest house!" piped up Honey, in a slightly muffled voice, probably due to his mouth being stuffed with cake.

"Yes! Remember to be well-prepared for cold weather, because Shiretoko peninsula is like an icicle at this time of year, so it won't be easy, but this is all for Haruhi's sake! On that note, make sure you don't let slip to her that we're-"

"Why not?" Haruhi said as she wrenched open the door. "Why not tell me when you're all butting into _my_ personal matters?"

"Ha-Haruhi!" stuttered Tamaki in surprise. "You made it!"

"Answer my question, Senpai!" she demanded. "Why did you tell them?"

"To be fair, Tamaki didn't tell anyone, we figured it out for ourselves," said Kyoya.

Haruhi remembered the website she had been looking on – the Ootori database. _Oh, right. Trust Kyoya-Senpai_. She thought to herself as she stumbled over to a nearby armchair and collapsing into it, putting her head in her hands.

"Nothing can be kept secret in this club, huh?" she moaned.

"We're sorry, Haru-Chan, are you angry with us?" said Honey-Senpai, putting a consoling hand on Haruhi's arm.

Sighing, Haruhi lifted her head. "To be honest, I was going to ask if you could help me, but that's no reason to go organising things without telling me!" she said, glaring especially at Tamaki.

"Haruhi… you've never been to Hokkaido in the winter, have you?" Kyoya said in a conversational tone

"I've never been to Hokkaido at all," Haruhi admitted.

"Ooh, that's a pretty good point Kyoya-Senpai's trying to make," said Kaoru, appearing beside Haruhi.

"Yeah, it can get down to about negative twenty-five degrees Celsius at night," said Hikaru.

"So?" she argued. "I can handle the cold weather!" She glared around at each member of the host club, until finally her eyes rested on Tamaki again, who was looking at her with an emotion she couldn't quite place.

"We're sorry, Haruhi. We should have talked to you about it, first. I won't stop you, if you want to come, but I also won't let you get into danger," he said, then smiled. "Is that okay?"

"Fine by me," Haruhi nodded. "But is the expense of the trip going to put me in more debt?"

Kyoya smirked. "Oh, don't worry about expenses. We can use the money from the sales of the winter collection photos of you."

Haruhi groaned, "I should have seen that one coming."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Despite my obvious lack of sleep, I'm on a bit of a roll today, mostly out of determination. For both of my major fanfics, the chapters that I've had to write today have been really annoying ones.

I hope this makes sense. Next time I'll try and be more awake. There's a continual joke running through this chapter, if you didn't notice it, that's fine, I don't think many people will.

But thank you for reading! The Ouran fandom is huge compared to the Black Cat fandom (which I also write for), so I don't expect to get as much attention for this, since there are so many more stories, and of course, stories which are a lot better than my delirious ramble.

This was just a necessary space-filler chapter. Chapter three and four are destined to have a bit of TamaHaru fuzzy and other things which I shouldn't mention here.

I've gotten a LOT of new ideas for this today, and the story is taking a completely different direction than what I first intended. I originally planned for it to be Okinawa, and for only Tamaki and Haruhi to be going, but then I figured that the rest of the host club would worm their way in somehow ^^

Ahh, I love the host club. *Huggles them all*

Oh yeah, reviews:

**Eileena of Idreal - **Really? That was funny? That was just a random line I put in because I love the fact that two of my favourite animes have so many of the same voice actors! I'm glad I made you laugh, though be careful _not_ to fall out of your seat, because that would hurt. I don't like things that hurt. D:  
>Anyway, thanks for the review!<p>

**Aeon Rune - **Indeed it does. Just like cream. A plot is like cream. That's pretty cool, because I like cream. I agree, it _will_ be interesting to see how this goes because I don't fully know myself...  
>I'm glad you like it, thanks for the review!<p>

By the way, this was originally included in the chapter, but it got edited out. Kuroko Shirochi in Japanese would be written as Shirochi Kuroko, as many of you may know, and the kanji for them means White Blood Black Child. Pretty creepy, huh? I spent ages trying to think of that name from Kanji that I already know. I don't know many.

Well, thank you for reading, and I hope this boring chapter won't put you off reading more!

- Silver

EDIT: Where it says 17/11/XX, the XX means that I didn't really want to specify a year, so I put XX. I've seen it in books, so... And 17 is the day, 11 is the month. That's what I use, and according to the internet, 3200 million use that format. I didn't really think that they're in Japan, since I was sleep-deprived, but Japanese date format is yyyy年mm月dd日 , (The symbols are the kanji used for year month and day. The middle one actually means moon ^^) so I've changed it to _xxxx年11月17日 _ . Thank you, **CandyCayne** for mentioning that the date format and reminding me xD


	3. Operation Justice: Affirmation

**Going Viral**

_**Chapter Three – Operation Justice: Affirmation**_

The week before Winter Break passed by without a hitch, and the plans for the Host Club's trip to Hokkaido were confirmed. Ranka agreed to let Haruhi go with the Host Club on the condition that she sleep in her own room, and stay away from the caves. (Shiretoko is known for its large population of Brown Bears, and for this reason, it would be good to stay away from the caves, where they would most likely be hibernating.) Tamaki insisted that he had already sorted out sleeping arrangements for the hotel, and that there would be more than enough rooms at the Morinozuka house in the forest.

Despite the reason for the trip, Haruhi's mood lightened considerably during the week. The twins expressed the opinion that it might be because she had placed top for exams again, while Tamaki claimed that it was because of his cheering her up. However, Kyoya quickly cut down his delusion by saying, rather certainly, that it was because she thought of it as a good experience for when she becomes a lawyer, especially since it was something she was so emotionally invested in.

And so, midday on the first Sunday of the Winter Break found the Host Club gathered at the check-in at the Narita airport. Haruhi, looking at the masses of luggage they had all brought (especially the twins) compared to her single, tiny suitcase and carry-on, wondered if she had under-packed, or if they had just over-packed

"So, of course, _I_ will be sitting next to Haruhi on the plane!" exclaimed Tamaki as they sat waiting for boarding to start a while later.

"What? No way! She's sitting with us!" exclaimed Hikaru, leaping up out of his seat.

"Yeah! We're her classmates, after all!" agreed Kaoru, mirroring Hikaru's action.

Tamaki also leapt out of his seat, in a grandly dramatic way. "And for that exact reason is why _I_ will be sitting next to her! You guys completely monopolise her!"

"We don't monopolise her! She just likes us better!" the Twins teased, sticking out their tongues.

Haruhi shook her head in exasperation as Tamaki shouted his supreme disagreement.

"Haru-Chan, Haru-Chan!" Honey said, pulling on the sleeve of Haruhi's coat. "Do you want to sit with me and Takashi? You can have the window seat, if you want!"

Haruhi glanced over at Tamaki and the twins, who were proposing another one of their competitions to decide who would sit with her. "Yeah, sure," she said in a loud, carrying voice. "I'll sit with you, Honey-Senpai."

Honey smiled. "Yay!"

The twins looked at each other, shrugged, and sat down again, whereas Tamaki was reduced to the dark corner by the elevator.

Once everyone had boarded the flight, (which was a private jet, as expected), it became plain that a seating arrangement was completely unnecessary, since there were so many seats and things to do. So Honey ate cake in the dining area (on a plane), Kyoya took notes (on a plane), the Twins played a videogame (on a plane), Tamaki sat in the corner, still depressed at how quickly Haruhi had dejected him. (…on a plane), and Haruhi sat by the window on the other side of the plane, reading. Also as expected, she was the only one doing something one would normally do on an aeroplane.

When they were close to Memanbetsu airport, and Tamaki had gotten over his childish depression, he sidled over to Haruhi and slipped into the seat next to her.

"Haruhi! Are you hungry? I can get an attendant to bring us some ootoro if you want it?" he said hopefully.

"No, thank you, I'm not all that hungry, to be honest," Haruhi replied, marking the page on her book and putting it down. "Say, Tamaki-Senpai. Do you even know what Shirochi looks like? We're not going to get very far if we don't know."

Tamaki froze. He hadn't thought to get any pictures, _now_ what was he going to do!

"Here," said Kyoya, who conveniently happened to be walking past. He was holding out two photos to Haruhi, who took them and carefully examined the first. "That one is from a wanted poster a few years ago, so she may have changed her appearance since then, but that doesn't seem to be the case from the look of the second one, which is the one the Hikers took in the forest a month ago."

Knowing better than to ask Kyoya how he got the photos, Tamaki leaned over to look at the picture with Haruhi. The first photo depicted a woman in her late twenties, who looked to be part Negroid because of her dark complexion and wide facial features. She had fuzzy black hair, small, dark eyes, and a crooked mouth. She wasn't exactly a looker, but she had this wild, rogue look about her, which was honestly quite frightening.

The second picture was slightly blurred, but the silhouette of a dark haired and skinned woman could be seen sprinting through the trees, with something like a white blur streaming from her hand.

"What's that?" Haruhi said quietly, placing her finger on it.

Tamaki shrugged. "A mark on the camera lens? Glare?"

"Perhaps," said Kyoya. "But it might be a good idea to keep that in mind."

"Kyoya-Senpai," Haruhi started. "Didn't you say that there would be members of the Ootori police force coming with us?"

Kyoya smirked. "There are already officers on standby in Hokkaido, and Tachibana, Hotta and Aijama are in the staff cabin now. They'll be staying in their own room at the hotel. There are Ootori police stations placed all over Japan, as you should know." And on that note, he walked away.

"Is there anything his family _doesn't_ have?" Haruhi wondered aloud.

"Er… instant coffee?"

By the time they reached the Shiretoko Noble Hotel, it was late in the afternoon, and the sun was drooping towards the horizon.

"Right, I've already organised this one!" said Tamaki as they checked in at the front desk, and the worker called for some staff to show them to their rooms.

"Organised what?" the twins inquired suspiciously. But before Tamaki could answer, a young woman approached them.

"Suoh-Sama? Ootori-Sama? Fujioka-Sama?" she said. "May I show you to your room?"

Tamaki grinned triumphantly and strode forwards, Kyoya pushed his glasses up his nose and glanced at Haruhi, who had a 'not amused' kind of expression on her face.

"Hey, that's playing dirty!" protested the twins, "Haruhi doesn't want to share a room with you!

"Ugh, whatever," groaned Haruhi, before following Kyoya and his bodyguards away from the group.

The room was on the fourth floor of the hotel, and was almost like a larger, cleaner, fancier version of Haruhi's apartment.

"Do you like it, Haruhi?" Tamaki asked hopefully once the helpful staff member had left to show the previously mentioned bodyguards to their room.

"I guess," she shrugged. "Where will the others be staying?"

"I knew you would! The others have a room like this on the other side of the hotel. They were the only decent rooms available, this place is quite popular!" Tamaki explained. "And with this arrangement, you can sleep in your own room, while Kyoya and I share the other! Brilliant, right?"

"If you say so, Senpai," Haruhi sighed, looking into one of the two tatami-matted bedrooms.

Before Tamaki could continue with his annoying rant, there was a knock on the door, before the twins, Honey and Mori walked in.

"Look, Takashi! This room is almost just like ours!" exclaimed Honey. Mori nodded.

Suddenly, the room became noisy, with the Twins voicing their disapproval of Haruhi being in the same room as Tamaki, and accusing him of being a pervert, Tamaki protesting that he was more trustworthy than them, and Honey stealing the free cakes from the cupboard (or rather, standing there while Mori reached up and got them for him). Kyoya sighed, and left, saying something about going to the main reception to ask about the free wireless internet connection.

In the midst of all this, no one noticed Haruhi slip out onto the balcony. The view looked across at Mt. Rausu, at which Haruhi was surprised at. She would have expected Tamaki to choose a room with a view of the ocean, considering his personality, and how he loved sunsets.

Somehow, the mountain reminded her of soft-serve ice cream, since it was covered in smooth white snow, just like everything else was.

A gust of cold air blew past the balcony, making Haruhi shiver slightly. Tamaki and the twins hadn't been lying when they said it was cold; Haruhi could hardly feel her fingers, despite the fact that she was wearing thick, woollen gloves.

She slipped her hands into her coat pockets, and felt a bit of paper brush against her right hand. She knew that it was the photo of Shirochi, which she had put there earlier on the plane. She pulled it out, and again examined the rough appearance of the murderer. There was definitely something foreboding about those dark, beady eyes, even though it was just a photograph. Was it really doing the right thing to be in Shiretoko, looking for her?

"Come on, Kaoru, let's leave Milord to his perverted thoughts on his own," sighed Hikaru, walking towards the door.

"I told you! I'm not a pervert! You guys are so meeaan!" shouted Tamaki in his signature prima-donna style.

"Bye bye, Tama-Chan! Sorry for eating your cakes!" Honey giggled as he and Mori followed the twins out.

Tamaki sighed, closing the door behind them. He then walked out to join Haruhi out on the balcony.

"Cold?" he asked, as he noticed her shivering slightly. She looked up from the photo in her hand.

"A little," she admitted.

Tamaki smiled, walking up beside her and putting an arm around her shoulders. Haruhi, remembering the library a little over a week ago, felt her face heat up slightly. She quickly looked down at the photo again.

"She looks pretty nasty," she remarked idly.

"Yeah, she does," Tamaki agreed. "Which is why I wanted to ask; are you sure?"

Haruhi looked up again. "What do you mean?"

"Are you sure about going after Shirochi? Is it for vengeance, or is it something else?"

Once again, Haruhi looked away. "To be honest, I have no idea. Part of me is angry, and wants nothing more than to put her behind bars, but then another part is a little scared, and wants to leave it to the authorities."

"The authorities, huh?"

"Yeah," Haruhi confirmed. "She's a well-known serial murderer, the NPA and who knows how many other forces are probably looking for her, right?"

"Probably. But they haven't caught her yet, which means they might not be headed in the right direction," Tamaki speculated.

"What's _that_ supposed to mean? I don't think _we_ could do any better than _they_ could."

"But what do _you_ want to do, Haruhi?"

Haruhi turned slowly to face him. "Er, what?"

Tamaki smiled down at her. "I think that it's always best to do what your heart thinks is right, don't you agree?"

Haruhi blinked a couple of times, unsure how to comprehend that.

"Come on, let's go inside. It's freezing out here."

Haruhi let him lead her inside, before he dropped his arm from her shoulders and left to finalise the dinner arrangements. Kyoya had come back while they were on the balcony, and was now typing away at his laptop.

Haruhi set the kettle to boil, and took out the complimentary tea set from the cupboard above the sink.

"Kyoya-Senpai, do you want some tea?" she asked, figuring it would be rude not to offer.

"Yes, please. No sugar and no milk," he replied absently.

Haruhi followed his instructions, and made his tea with no sugar or milk, though she wouldn't have anyway. As she placed it beside him, she noticed that he was looking at the Ootori database.

"What are you looking up?" she enquired.

"Well, I thought it might be a good idea to keep an eye out for any updates," he explained, scrolling down the long page which Haruhi guessed to be the page which had given the useful hint that Shirochi was somewhere on the Shiretoko Peninsula.

"Oh. Yeah, I guess you're right," Haruhi agreed, before going back to the bench to get her own tea, and put Tamaki's on the table for when he got back.

"By the way, Haruhi," Kyoya said in a conversational tone, not looking up from his laptop. "If you're having second thoughts about this trip, remember that everyone came here purely to help you, and so will probably go along with whatever decision _you_ make, so think about it carefully."

Haruhi didn't reply, but was reminded about what Tamaki had said earlier; _"I think it's best to do what your heart thinks is right, don't you agree?"_

Tamaki came back in a few minutes later, breaking the thoughtful silence. "We're meeting everyone else in the private dining hall in thirty minutes. They don't do the all-you-can-eat buffet during off-season, so it's the only way we can all have dinner together! And breakfast tomorrow will be bright and early so we can head out into the forest!" he exclaimed, somewhat pleased at his organisational skills

"Speaking of the forest," said Kyoya, "listen to this latest update: Several NPA officers found dead in the forest area near Rausu. After careful deliberation, the NPA is discontinuing the search for Kuroko Shirochi until a more powerful force is assembled."

It was silent for a moment.

"I think that answers your thoughts from before, Haruhi," Tamaki said in a shaky voice. "There aren't any authoritiessearching for Shirochi. Not anymore."

Over dinner, Kyoya recounted what he had found to the rest of the club, to a grim response, as expected.

"I guess she really _is_-"

"-As dangerous as she sounds!"

"Not to mention how dangerous she even _looks_, did you see her photo? She's scaaary!"

"Kuro-Chan must have a really messed-up personality, maybe her childhood was sad?"

"Yeah. Maybe it was."

"Well she _has_ been eluding capture since she was seventeen, so I don't doubt that."

"What a crappy lifestyle."

"I'd say!"

The only one who remained quiet while they discussed this was Haruhi, who nibbled at her seafood soba, deep in thought.

"The issue now, though,"

"Is what do _we_ do?" said Kaoru and Hikaru, respectively. Their question was met by silence, until:

"It should be Haru-Chan's decision, I think," Honey said quietly.

"Yeah," Mori nodded.

And so for once, the whole host club was at an agreement; that it should be Haruhi's decision as to whether they continue, or if they should call it quits, due to the danger.

Haruhi looked up, and noticed everyone looking at her, waiting for the decision to be made. Tamaki's words ran through her head again; _"it's best to do what your heart thinks is right_…"

_What my heart thinks is right… if that's the case, then…_

"I think we should keep going," she said firmly. "We've come all the way out here, already."

Most of the host club smiled knowingly.

"I knew you'd say that, my dear little lawyer-girl, Haruhi!" Tamaki fawned.

Haruhi smiled slightly. Because after all, it was no longer a simple matter of revenge.

Operation Justice had been affirmed.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Well, that didn't take long, did it? The motivation bar for this is right up there! *points*

And isn't that a cheery note to leave it on? Operation Justice is pretty much a two-part chapter, because I felt like doing a two-part chapter. Don't expect such a happy final note for most of the chapters, though. *Smiles blissfully*

While writing this chapter, I made a major typo that had me laughing hysterically for five minutes straight. The main reason for this was probably because it was really late at night/early in the morning, and I'm incredibly childish. But anyway, I was writing Tamaki's line "which is why I wanted to ask; are you sure?" and somehow, instead of a 't' in 'wanted', there was a 'k'. I don't know how, because T and K have fair distance, but sometimes my fingers get ahead of themselves since I don't look when I'm typing.

If you don't get it, it might be because of your nationality. It's really sick, though.

Strange and disgusting typos aside, this was actually a bit of a barrier to write. There's, what, five time skips? I didn't want to write every single detail of the journey otherwise they'd still be on the plane, that's just boring. It almost felt as if I was walking through metaphorical jelly, trying to keep everyone in character, especially at the Tamaki/Haruhi part in the middle. I did say there would be a bit of fuzz, and that's pretty much what I meant. This isn't a romance fic, though! Just expect the occasional touching moment, like in the anime/manga, only possibly more often. I was a bit worried about them being OOC, though. D:

Reviews:

**Burning Moon of the Sky - **Thank you! I figured since there weren't really any specific details in the anime or manga about how she died other than the fact she was hospitalised, I would stir things up a bit! Thanks for the review ^^

**Eileena of Idreal -** Thanks! I'm glad you think so! They're gonna be in Hokkaido for a while to come. ^^

**CandyCayne - **That's good to hear! I don't really want to make people bored x] The date format I use is DD/MM/YY, but by saying that you reminded me that the Japanese use yyyy年mm月dd日 , so it should be _xxxx年11月17日_ . I've fixed that now, thanks for reminding me, and thanks for reviewing!

On that note, reviewing would definitely motivate me to get the next chapter done in as short a gap as this one ^^ Thank you very much!

- Silver


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